


Between Book Stacks

by KingOfHellAndSass



Category: Captain America (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: At least I guess so?? It's pretty fluffy to me uwu, Avid reader Bucky, Fluff, I might turn this into a series I LOVE THE IDEA SO MUCH, I'm actually really proud of this one, Librarian Steve, M/M, basically YAAAAS
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-06
Updated: 2014-10-06
Packaged: 2018-02-20 03:46:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,120
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2413784
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KingOfHellAndSass/pseuds/KingOfHellAndSass
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Steve is a librarian and when on his shifts, he always sees Bucky. They've reached a point where they recognize each other when in the same room, and one day Bucky decides to talk to Steve - where could this move get them?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Between Book Stacks

The door creaked in a slow and increasing in volume sound, despite the poor guy's effort to stop the unwanted in the library noise. Steve looked up from the pile of books and catalogues and papers with a surprised look on his face, only that he wasn't really surprised since the door had been hanging on from its frame for dear life for quite some time now. He cursed under his breath for forgetting to fix the damn thing (or maybe he could call his friend Tony to fix it, Tony was good at fixing and making things. Steve would probably only make it worse). He smiled awkwardly at the brunet who gave a half-smile back, too worried that he had completely destroyed the door to give Steve an actual smile.

That was Bucky, and he was now walking as quietly as humanly possible past the front desk and deeper in the library, his body posture screaming that he was trying to make up for the seconds of distress the door creaking had caused to the silent readers. Steve recognized Bucky instantly; he was always there on Steve’s working days. Steve wasn’t sure if Bucky visited the place the days of the week that he wasn’t there. Bucky obviously didn’t know Steve’s name, but Steve was blessed by his working position and after writing Bucky’s name down on the catalogue a few times, he made the connection between the face and the name. They had this really weird relationship where they didn’t know but still recognized each other, they hadn’t ever really talked or anything but they would still exchange smiles when Bucky was coming and leaving, even from across the room sometimes. It was nice for Steve to see a familiar face in the library every day; even if they weren’t friends, Steve would find Bucky’s presence comforting.

Today was different though. After two minutes of silence leaving behind the damned door creak, Steve looked up again and he realized that Bucky wasn’t walking as quietly as humanly possible. He was standing there (“Oh God I’m such an idiot” Steve panicked without letting it show – and thanked the God he had just referred to for giving him the ability to conceal emotions) in his blue coat and holding – no, squeezing – a red beanie. Steve wondered whether he’d wear it just on the top of his head or all the way down covering the ears. He rushed a “Can I help you?” firstly because his latest thought disturbed him and secondly because the silence was getting way too awkward and he wasn’t sure how long he had left Bucky standing there.

“I wouldn’t exactly call what I need ‘help’, but I guess you can put it this way”, Bucky tried to laugh the awkwardness of the situation off, pulling his lips back into a wide smile burning a hole through Steve’s heart. Steve tried really hard to stop thinking about how _adorable_ that guy was, because he was getting cuter and cuter with every word he blurted out, so he squinted his eyes and slightly raised one eyebrow in confusion and asked, “Uh sure? I guess I could try to be useful in whatever it is that you want”. He stacked a big number of books on his arms and nodded at Bucky to follow him.

“Okay, so”, Bucky said as the two walked around the halls, stopping every once in a while so that Steve could place some of the books he was carrying on the shelves, “I don’t know if you have noticed but I come here a lot. And I see you around a lot. And sometimes when I come to the checkout and you don’t have a lot work to do, I’ve seen you reading books, _horror books_.” Steve stopped what he was doing to shoot a surprised smile at the smaller man dragging his steps behind him. “Well that’s not creepy at all”, he said in a mocking tone.

“You’re right, it is. I’m sorry, I wasn’t trying to be nosy, I’m just always interested in what others are reading. And, well, I always wanted to get into horror literature. I just don’t know where to start”, Bucky dashed to explain.

“You want me to get you into horror?” Steve said and he was sure that his amusement caused by the situation bled off in his voice, because he was made to drop his tones by some angry “SHH!” coming from somewhere in the library.

“Well you seem like you know what’s going around in the genre. I’ve never seen you with anything else but a horror book in your hands.” Bucky observed Steve’s voice change and lowered his as well.

“You’re damn right, horror is what you could say, my thing. Alright then, let’s do this. I could use some person to talk about books”, Steve smiled enthusiastically at Bucky, and wanted to throw his hand on his shoulder, but he wasn’t sure if that was acceptable, and he decided that it would probably invade his personal space.

Back at the front desk, Steve scribbled his number on a small piece of paper and said “Just let me know when you’re ready to start”, handing it to him. 

Bucky proceeded to putting the note in the front pocket of his jeans. He looked up and Steve and quietly said “Um... now?” to which Steve replied by running off through the book labyrinth and coming back almost instantly with an average sized book in his hands.

“You can start with this. I started with it” he caught his breath and only let go of the book when he was sure that it was in Bucky’s hands. 

_The Complete Stories and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe_ , Bucky mouthed the book’s title and looked over at Steve who was already writing it down along with the borrower’s name. “By the way, my name is Buc—“

“I know,” Steve whispered, the corners of his mouth curling up into a smile.

“Of course you do”, Bucky mentally slapped himself for being stupid. Librarians wrote names down and this specific one had written Bucky’s name probably more than any other name.

“But you probably don’t know that my name is Steve”, he raised both eyebrows at his new friend, walking over to open the door for him so that he didn’t have to go through the whole oh-fuck-did-I-just-tear-this-door-off phase again.

Bucky waved at Steve and hopped down the stairs, book in hand. “Don’t forget to let me know when you finish reading it!” he shouted, getting another angry complaint from who he guessed was the same reader as before, and the familiar creaking of the door filled the room again.

 

**Author's Note:**

> 1) So, this was actually for a prompt sent to me by livinglawrencethings on tumblr, for the "send me a ship and a number and I'll write a short fic" ask game. (You can find it here http://smilebucky.tumblr.com/post/98894443401/send-me-a-ship-and-a-number-and-ill-write-a-short-fic) and if you are on tumblr, I'd be more than glad to receive requests from you! My URL is smilebucky :3
> 
> 2) I'm seriously thinking of turning this into a series of fics, using more Marvel characters as well. Let me know if any of you is interested! (But even if you're not, I'll probably end up doing it anyway, haha)


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